Democrats Accuse Fargo Legislator Of Living In Minot, Have Residency Problems Of Their Own

Rep. Randy Boehning has been elected to serve the people of District 27 (Fargo area) since 2003. But his opponeng in the current election cycle, Democrat Jess Roscoe, is accusing Boehning of living outside of his district. According to a mailing she’s sent out (see above), Rep. Boehining is currently living in Minot.

Here’s the back side of the mailer (name and address information of the reader who sent it to me redacted):

Earlier this year I wrote a post about a number of lawmakers – Democrats and Republicans – who had moved out of their districts. Minot is a great town – I love living here – but if Rep. Boehning has moved to Minot obviously that’s going to be a problem for his constituents.

So I called Randy and asked him what the deal was. Turns out he is working in Minot, but he hasn’t exactly moved here. As his Legislative bio page indicates, Rep. Boehning works in the construction industry. There’s a lot of building going on in Minot these days, as there is all over western North Dakota, and Rep. Boehning is working on the 55th Crossing development.

Roscoe’s mailer, claiming Boehning “works and lives in Minot” isn’t very accurate. He’s working on a project here, but he hasn’t moved here.

But Roscoe, and Fargo-area Democrats in general, may want to watch which stones they’re throwing about living out of their districts.

In the Secretary of State’s candidates database Jess Roscoe lists her address as…New Rockford. Which is most definitely not in District 27.

Also interesting is that, according to Central Voter File information from the Secretary of State’s website, when Roscoe was on the June primary ballot as a candidate in District 27, she actually cast her primary vote in Eddy County, which is where New Rockford is but where District 27 is not (see her request for an absentee ballot in Eddy County here). Now, state law only requires that a candidate be living in their district 30 days before election day, but it’s a little hypocritical for Roscoe to throw stones at Boehning for supposedly living out of her district when she wasn’t living in the district when she was on the primary ballot.

And another Fargo-area Democrat has some residency shenanigans going on as well.

Jaci Stofferahn is running as a Democrat for the state House in District 13. In the Secretary of State’s candidate database she lists a West Fargo address that is in District 13, which is all well and good. Until you realize that, according to Cass County property tax records, the property is actually owned by District 13 Democrat Party Chairwoman Jaqueline Brodshau.

Either Stofferahn is roommates with Brodshau and her husband, which seems unlikely, or she just listed her district chair’s address because she didn’t actually live in District 13.

Maybe she’s moved into the district now, but again. It’s a little hypocritical for Democrats to criticize Republicans for living outside of their district (which Boehning is not) when they themselves aren’t even living in those districts while running for public office in them.

When I spoke with Rep. Boehning, he said he’d like to change the law regarding this. He said that currently city officials have to live in their cities for nine months before election day in order to qualify to serve (that’s section 40-13-01 of the North Dakota Century Code). He’d like to see lawmakers have to abide by the same time limit, living in their districts for nine months before the primary.

Seems reasonable to me.